Archive for the Category » Arions-Home «

I have been playing with the signup form which was not working due to the CAPTCHA thingy. I had to add a PHP line to make it work. That is done and tested. Yea! I have done some minor CSS tweaking too.

Perhaps we should first ask “Why not English?”. Why should English not be the IAL (or for that fact any natural/organic/native language). Well let us take a look at all of the problems that people who are learning English as a second language would have to encounter while reading/writing/speaking it:

Homophones: In English we have a few ways that have organically grown for us to make the ‘oo’ or ‘ew’ sound as in the following situations: to, treat too, advice beautiful, doctor few, and sue.

Homonyms:We have so very many words that sound a like, but that mean very different things: to, too, two or sent, scent, cent for a few examples. (Homonym list from About.com’)

Inconsistent pluralization: How about we talk about the lack of consistent method for creating plurals in English. What follows are several of the ways that we create plural nouns in English: sheep – sheep; mouse – mice; woman – women; car – cars; foot – feet; baby – babies. ?????

I hope this gives you a hint at the problems with having English as the IAL. In the next “Why Esperanto?” we will cover more.b If you know anyone who has tried to learn English as a second language you will know what I mean. I help my wife with her English, as well as having spoke with many people from overseas that speak English as a second language, and it is not always easy breaking through the slang, colloquialism, as well as English’s quirks.
Wow, website like this
do I sound like a freak! =) =O
I am not sure if I should do more of this.

Neutral Language

Esperanto is a neutral language in that it does not have any specific ties to a religion, physician culture, here or nation. All other languages such as Japanese, English, Swahili, French, Russian, Hebrew, etc all have national, religious, cultural, political, and/or historical connotations, and baggage associated with them.

Americans want English to remain the lingua franca, the Japanese want Japanese, the Russians, want Russian, and many will oppose a language other than their native language simply because it is not their language or because there is national (French), historical (German), or political (English) problem from some countries which would keep it from being accepted.

French was the international language prior to World War II for a long time and then English took over after showing its economic and political dominance throughout that war. This change is imminent especailly as world’s political and economic landscape changes. What will be the next International Language? Whose will it be?

For native English speakers who do not speak Indian or any dialect of Chinese learning these languages can can be quite the daunting thought. The way to protect US interests and to level the playing field for all is to adopt Esperanto which has no cultural or national ties. It is orders-of-magnitudes easier to learn and gain a conversational understanding – somewhere in the realm of a little over 1 year of active study.

Constructed Language

Some would say that the fact that Esperanto is a constructed language is a disadvantage, but I will agrue that this is a distinct advantage when applied to an international audience. The native languages that most people speak have naturally and organically evolved much to the chagrin and frustration to a person who is trying to pick them up as second languages.

If you try to pick up a second language you have to deal with many gramattical inconsistencies and exceptions inherent in most organically grown “natural” languages, slang, as well as colloquial usage and pronuncuation. Esperanto spares you pretty much all of this, because it is a non-organic constructed language built with the intent to be easy to learn and consistent.

In English we have a few ways that have oprganically grown for us to make the ‘o’ sound as in the following situations: to, too, beautiful, few, and sue. How does anyone learn English? Esperanto is phonetic. The letters make one sound and one sound only each and every time. There are no tricky letter combinations that make differing sounds such as th, ch, qu and so on.

Esperanto has been constructed to be consistent, phonetic, and easy to learn avoiding the pitfalls and difficulties of other native languages.

Gateway Language

Esperanto will serve as a gateway language which will make it easier for people to more quickly learn other languages. Learning Esperanto prior to learning another can help reduce the amount of time to achieve converstional fluency by one or two years. It has also been proven to increase understanding and proficiency of your native tongue.

Preface – Esperanto Primer

First thing I want you to do is to overload yourself on the Esperanto primer to get an overdose intro into Esperanto. I do not expect you to remember most of this. I just want you to get exposure to the overarching concepts found in Esperanto so you will have some perspective in how things fit together in the big picture of the language. If you really, online
really need to concentrate on something while taking a look at this then concentrate on the alphabet, since that will be the first lesson.

You may want to print out the Primer so you have it as a reference document as you go through these exercises. It may come in handy to refresh your memory to give you an idea where the lesson is going or how it fits into the rest of the language.

Chapter 1 – Esperanto Basics

In Chapter 1 we will cover the Alphabet, as well as basic Noun, Verb, Article and Conjunction formation, as well as basic sentence structure and formation.

Chapter 2 – Expand Your Basics

In Chapter 2 we will cover Pronouns, Adjectives, more word modifiers, as well as expand your vocabulary a bit.

Basic Updates

I have the Links section copied over from my Blogger account. I also have the Archive basically functioning.

I may have a contact form up and running over this holiday weekend. We will see. Now that I am looking at it I will have to add a new comment and spam module too.

I am also considering moving this site from the WordPress CMS over to Drupal now that Dreamhost has an auto-install for Drupal… Yea!

Esperanto Pages

I have added a link in the header for Esperanto. I am in the process of trying to learn the language. This is more for my benefit while I muddle my way through it. If anyone has any questions, generic
comments, generic suggestion, improvements, corrections, or links for source validation, please feel free to comment. I will be expanding this as I go.

First, advice do not ask why how on earth I came upon this link or why I choose to post it: The Pronoun ‘hu’. Second, artificial the points brought up can invoke an interesting discussion about how language shapes our thoughts and our ability to concisely express ourselves.

I finally have us moved to Dreamhost, more info
so please forgive the dust while I figure things out with the WordPress CMS, check an no this is not my design work. It is one of the default WordPress templates. I know. I know. =( =P =)

Please forgive the dust while I am still figuring things out and rearranging things. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know.

Finally I will be moving Arion’s Home to a more permanent home. I have had the domain www.ArionsHome.com for a very, physiotherapy very long time and it has been forwarding itself to this BLog. I will be setting up the domain to permanent webspace and we will have nothing more of this forwarding shenanigans. I will let you know when all of that is done. =)

Pronounced ‘A-rion’ like Scooby Doo would say “Look Shaggy a lion!” – “Rook Raggy a rion!” Now that we have pronunciation out of the way and you are not thinking of me as an arian racist thug I can move on to other nerdy and kind of embarrassing facets.

The nitty-gritty is something that you may find a little strange but I will disclose it nevertheless. Arion was my favorite Second Edition (2E) Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) character. She was a 17th level Magic User and what is called (at least in those days) an Alu-fiend which are the half-fiendish offspring of a succubus and a mortal.

She was good natured, disorder wise and innocent, pulmonologist yet worldly and naive at the same time. She is passionate and protective of those she cares about and unleashes all of the arcane magical might that she can to destroy demons or anyone who would threaten her friends, family or the innocent.

I have not played her since then because the Third Edition (3E) rule set would not be kind in translation to such a character, and I do not mean by virtue of the implied and not at all applicable morale proclivities of her fiendish parentage as some of you may think. It more has to do with the offsetting and balancing the advantage and innate abilities of her race. I am thinking that with the impending horizon of Fourth Edition (4E) that her to return – Faerie Dragon Familiar and all – is in the making. Yea!

I have written a little bit about her history in story format and maybe someday I feel brave enough to to unleash my creative workings upon you to incite massive hemorrhaging and scarring the likes of which the literary world have not seen in a long time.

I have decided to start my new site as as Web Log. My old site has not been function for about a month because I have not used the email associated with the internet service that hosted my site. They sent me emails asking for a renewal of service and I had no idea. Oh, advice well… Time for a change anyhow. Once I get the website done for my mother’s insurance business I will be in the progress of recreating this site and my consulting website and when that is done I will be able to begin freelance consulting!

Freedom Insurance’s Website

When I originally created this site I had no (real)idea what I was doing. I created this before I was working for Sauk County where I have really learned how to be a web developer. Web Standards, hospital Semantics and the rest of the stuff that matters (accessibility and usability). I am close to getting the template done and soon it will be ready for some usability testing. The navigation has required a a whole lot of CSS work.